Pretty good,like the timing of coming off the wire between skipper and crew.Probably about a 8-10 second tack. If I was being critical ,I would tell the skipper to stay on the wire a little longer to roll the boat a little harder. Also bring the tiller with the sheet hand up higher to keep tension on main longer.What I found more impressive is how he went from ahead and to leeward ,to ahead and to windward of the two trailing boats (one of which looks like Modermans boat).

Nice smooth hand on the tiller. I was impressed that he didn't chase the apparent wind in the lulls.

Worth noticing: boats were pinching that started down the line (behind this boat), and they (this boat) were still making land on them.This is one of the real keys to getting good at racing a cat-having a feel for best angle upwind, and it's not always high.I remember one Prosail race in sporty conditions on San Francisco bay. I had made a good start, and Ed Baird was right to my leeward. We were about halfway up that tack, and Pete Melvin crossed behind both of us going a lot lower, but a lot faster. I hollered over to Ed, " What do you think of what Pete's doing?" He hollered back, "I never could beat him in college either!" I learned a lot on that one tack. Pete crossed ahead of both of us going to the mark.

Questions: Why did absolutely no one else want the pin end? Did they expect, and plan for, the big header? Was that the reason for wanting that side of the beat, or were they simply expecting more, or a new, wind on that side?

Last edited by Tom King on Sat Jun 08, 2013 8:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

quote: "What I found more impressive is how he went from ahead and to leeward ,to ahead and to windward of the two trailing boats "

That was mostly from the big header-no question some from better boat skills, but the big gain was from being in the right place when the big header came. I wonder if it was expected, and that's why they went for the pin end, or if that end of the line was just favored. A lot of times, in big fleets-which this wasn't-the committee will set the pin end a bit to windward just to spread out the boats. There are always a lot who start at the boat end regardless of how the line is set.

I like how the skipper in the background gets tea-bagged off the boat (around 2:39)

That was Eric Raybon, wasn't it Jim? (For those that don't know, Eric is a past Hobie 16 Youth North American Champion.)

OK, some of the players here:The boat with the red top panel to windward at the beginning is Mark/Grace Modderman (2nd place overall).The Seabreeze boat that takes him up at the start is Rich McVeigh/Carol Hilk (who won the regatta).Geoff and Krista ended up third.

The red striped sails in the very beginning are Rico Quatrone and the Rt. Rev. Dr. Fluffy White.

There weren't going to be any 18s to play with that weekend so Barbie and I borrowed one of Wally's boats. It was not pretty! I have a new found respect for all you 16 sailors racing that tippy little skateboard. Guess I will have to get used to it, though. Either that or not race. Our 18 fleet is just about gone .

Yes, that was Eric getting tea-bagged. Only reason I was laughing was that I managed to end up with my feet in the water, hanging off the trap wire three different times that weekend. At least it gives me an achievable goal for the next regatta. Stay on the boat for an entire race .

One more player in the video: Dan Flanigan and Jack Wilkinson are the ones going off on port at the start.

I learned to do it on a 17, Friend that tought me to sail back when I was 17 had 2 - 17's. He did not spend any time trying to learn, I nabbed every Hotline Magazine his dad had and read everything (1986-1987), one of the articles was about Roll Tacking the 17, We were at the beach and ended up racing a 16 basically back and forth across the bay, That guy was killing us on the tack's. I kept trying to explain it to him, finally he started trying it and it increased our turn around time, These were 180 degree turns for us. Basically just wait until the boom is flying at you, duck and dive across and get ready to go!

Matt or these other guys can explain the process much better than I can.....

Roll tacking drills aren't my favorite for sure but heck do they decrease your time in tacking. Also how does one roll tack when out on the trapeze? I haven't done it yet mainly cause high school sailing doesn't allow it.

I thought about trying to explain it. The trouble is, it's different for different wind and water conditions. The idea is to get to the point that you don't have to think about it. The idea is to not only get the boat around quickly, but to accelerate out on the new tack by using crew weight to bring the boat back down while sheeting in the sail-kind of like pumping the sail on a sailboard, only you only get one chance.

It's the kind of thing you are not going to get the feel for, and it is mostly feel, without MANY repititions.

Back in the 1970's, when I was racing a Laser, almost every evening after work, I'd do one hundred tacks going upwind, and then as many gybes back down as possible before I got back in. Get the boat up to speed and tack. I've lived on a lake where it's about a mile wide and ten mile fetch for 40 years, so that helped. I kept an old beater Laser rigged up and laying over on the beach. All I had to do was flip it up, drag it in the water, and hop on. In the early '80s, I did the same thing with a Windsurfer.

We still do that occasionally on the other boats, but my wife is not as enthusiastic about it as I am.

When we raced the 21 in the Prosail series, if you didn't roll it, you got rolled over by competitors. It was a blast. 20 boats of good sailors on short courses, always in close quarters, racing for prize money, with no penalty for contact other than getting slowed up if it was too severe. You had to qualify on Fridays, and top 20 raced the weekend for money. As wild as that seems, there were never any collisions to amount to anything, except once that I didn't see.